Ebola crisis: Man in Brazil hospitalised with symptoms of deadly virus

Brazil is treating a 47-year-old man who has become the country’s first suspected case of the deadly Ebola virus.
The man, originally from Guinea in West Africa, has been placed into isolation at a hospital in the city of Cascavel, where Brazil’s ministry of health have sent specialists to provide additional help and care.
He arrived in Brazil on 19 September and is believed to have travelled from Guinea.
 On Thursday afternoon the man went to the emergency department at the hospital with a fever. His case is being treated by medics as suspicious as his symptoms have developed within the maximum incubation period for Ebola, which is 21 days.Brazil’s health officials said the man has not experienced any bleeding, vomiting or shown any other symptoms at this time, but he will be transferred to the National Institute of Infectious Diseases at the Evandro Chagas hospital in Rio de Janeiro, in accordance with security protocols in place for suspected cases of Ebola.
 Health officials are now attempting to identify people who may have come into contact with the patient while displaying any symptoms, Brazilian newspaper O Globo reported.
Brazil’s ministry of health has reminded people that Ebola is transmitted through the contact with the blood, tissues or bodily fluids of sick individuals, or through the contact of contaminated objects or surfaces.
The country has joined Argentina and the US in tightening its port entry procedures for ships that have sailed from West Africa, in an attempt to contain the deadly virus, Reuters news agency reported.
Brazil’s health surveillance agency, Anvisa, said that any ships known to have docked in Ebola-affected countries within the last 21 days will need to provide thorough medical records and logs of medicines used before receiving clearance to dock at Brazilian ports.